(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

We are glad you're with us today.

I'm going to ask that if you want to follow along with the message today that maybe you go ahead and open up your Bibles to John chapter 15 in the New Testament, John chapter 15.

In just a few moments, we're going to read through about 11 verses and then talk about how this can help us be the people that God calls us to be during this particular season of the year.

Now we're, as a culture, we're preparing to move into a busy season.

November and December are what we know as the holiday season where we're going to be celebrating here in just a few weeks, Thanksgiving, come on somebody.

And also, right around the corner is Christmas.

And in the church world, it's an opportunity for the church to show up in a powerful way, in a big way in the community, and really begin to help people experience the love and the goodness of God.

In other words, it's a time for the church to overflow what God has put in them out in the world around them.

And I know that many of you are going to be having family in for the holiday season.

I know many of you are probably going to be traveling during the holiday season.

But what I want to encourage you is during this time to remember who God has called you to be as a person and who God has called the local church to be during this particular season.

Because whenever you begin to bring relationships together during the holiday season, it's an opportunity for God to overcome some things, come on, some difficult moments, some challenges and begin to shine who he is in you and through you.

It's an opportunity for us to overflow with the goodness of God.

So today we're going to talk about, you know what, what that really means in our life.

John chapter 15, verses one through 11.

This is Jesus talking to his early followers known as his disciples, his students.

And this is right before he goes to the cross.

He says this, he says to them, I am the true grapevine.

He's using an analogy here, and he says, and my father is the gardener.

He, the father, cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so that they will produce even more.

He says, you have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you.

There in verse 3, speaking to those disciples.

He says, you've already been pruned and you've been purified, disciples, by the message that I have given you.

Then he continues on and he says, now, remain in me and I will remain in you.

For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

He says, yes, I am the vine and you are the branches.

Look at your neighbor and say, you're a branch.

Go ahead and tell them, you're a branch.

Unless you're Bill Twigg, who is a part of our congregation, then you're a twig.

Come on, somebody.

Just kidding.

He goes on to say, those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit.

For apart from me you can do nothing.

Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers.

Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.

But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask anything you want and it will be granted.

When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples.

I would underline that in my Bible if I were you.

It says, when you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples.

What does this do?

This brings great glory to my father, who again is the gardener.

He says, I have loved you even as the father has loved me.

Remain in my love.

When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my father's commandments and remain in his love.

Verse 11 says that Jesus tells these followers, I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy.

Yes, your joy will overflow.

So here Jesus makes this statement to those early followers, which can apply to us too.

But he says, you know what?

What you are to do as my follower is to produce much fruit.

To produce something out of your life.

In other words, what Jesus is saying, I have connected you to the Father for a purpose.

And it's so that not only you can be saved by what I've done for you, but so that you can be empowered as a branch on the vine to produce great and mighty things out of your life and overflow with the goodness of God.

He says, I've designed it in such a way that I've come to connect human beings to the Father in heaven so that, everybody say so that.

That's the purpose cause.

So that you can produce much fruit.

So you can do great and mighty things.

And can I tell you, the Bible says when we're producing fruit that we're overflowing with joy and great and great mighty things are happening in us and through us.

In other words, the church is to be full of joy.

But the reason we're full of joy is because Christ has first come into our life and produced that joy in our hearts and we draw from His joy in order to produce fruit and His goodness in this world.

And when we do that, that should bring us joy.

In other words, when the church is growing, that should make your heart happy.

There's nothing more joyful for me than to see somebody connect to their heavenly Father.

And not only connect to their heavenly Father and go to heaven one day, but connect to their heavenly Father and become all He's designed them to be.

In other words, they get in on God's plan and they begin to produce fruit with their life too.

And if we're going to really do that and live a life of overflow, I wrote down a few things, and you may want to write them down too.

I wrote it down this way, I must first connect with the source.

Connect with the source.

Look what he says here in John 15, verses 1 and 3.

Again, Jesus says, I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener.

He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so that they will produce even more.

And this is fascinating how he says this, but he says, now, you people, in that particular context, he says, you have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you.

So what message had Jesus been giving this group of people?

What message had he been sharing?

Because it says that the message that he gave them gave them the ability to be the branch that God called them to be, and they had already been pruned and purified, so they were set up to produce this amazing fruit.

The message Jesus had been giving them is found in your Bible in John chapter 13, 14, and he kind of finishes this off in John chapter 15, but Jesus basically says that he is one with the Father.

In other words, he is God in the flesh.

He goes on to say that he forgives them, washes them, connects with them, and gives them a new start with a bright future in all eternity.

That was the message that Jesus had given them.

See, he had washed their feet in John chapter 13 to show them who he was.

He had began to talk to them about the power of God in their life and the power of the Holy Spirit in their life in John chapter 14.

Now he goes on and says, look, you know what?

If you really want to produce much fruit, connect with the message I have given you and then that fruit will begin to flow in you and flow through you and flow out of you.

And so the question is, have we connected with the message that Jesus gave those disciples?

Have you truly connected with the message that Christ came to give?

Because what Jesus says in John chapter 14, verse 6, he says, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life, and no human being on this planet comes to the Father except through me.

In other words, I'm divine.

And if you really want to connect with your creator, you've got to come through what I am offering.

See that's what God did.

He gave a good gift to humanity.

He offered a sacrifice to humanity He's known as Jesus.

He defeated he defeated sin.

He defeated death.

He defeated the grave He was elevated from the grave you and I live in a different time and space We live on the other side of the forgiveness of the cross.

We live on the other side of the resurrection We live on the other side of the ascension But the message is still the same if you want to connect to your heavenly father, you have to come to him through Christ Jesus Let me put it this way if you go to a drink fountain in a local restaurant Maybe you go to Hardee's maybe your favorite place is McDonald's or Wendy's I don't know where it is but if you go in there and you want apple juice and they give you a cup you don't walk over to the fountain and Put it underneath the sign that says diet coke and hold it there.

Do you?

Know you put it underneath the one that says apple juice and then it begins to fill up with Apple juice and unless you know what you got some messed up employees if you hold it underneath the diet coke You ain't gonna get apple juice No matter how bad you want apple juice to come out of the diet coke or the Mountain Dew sign It ain't gonna come out if you really want apple juice and what Jesus is saying is God has provided the apple juice He has provided everything you need to know about how to connect with him But some people say no, I'm just gonna hold it underneath the diet coke sign until apple juice comes out Jesus says no God's already provided the apple juice just a line and get underneath the Space where you can connect to God and I'll fill you up and you can overflow With the goodness of God But but so many people are disconnected from God trying to do it the way they want to do it My friend God is so good That though humanity got off track and has sinned against God God has provided a way back to him And God says man if you really want to live life Like I've designed you to live life Then what you got to do is you got to connect through the source That I've given to connect with me through it is God's goodness It is God's mercy.

It is God's grace God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son Whoever would believe in him will not waste away will not perish but have everlasting life So if we're gonna connect if we're going to live a life of overflow, the first thing we have to do It's connect with God through a Christ Jesus.

Now.

There are many things in life that try to disconnect me from God, right?

I Mean it happens in my life all the time.

I Mean, I've tried to connect with my creator and find the dominion of life through through many ways though They had told me about Jesus.

Guess what?

I tried to do it through a lot of other ways early on in my life but none of those connections really worked and what I discovered is when I Submitted everybody say submit.

So it's a word you don't like But when I submitted to God's authority in God's love in God's way Everything began to change In other words, I wasn't putting myself in the position to provide the way I Recognized that I needed to submit to him as provider and everything would begin to get back on track Understand the goodness of God.

He has provided a way for you to connect with him and have life and have it Abundantly, but the way you begin to really overflow with God is by connecting with the same Message that Jesus gave those early disciples that he is one with the father He is God in the flesh that he forgives us He washes us he connects with us and he gives us a new start and a bright future in all eternity Have you connected to God?

through Christ Jesus Are you trying to do it on your own merit?

Because the truth of the matter is this is the beauty of the good news.

This is the gospel That's what the word good news means and what you and I have to do is trust God believe God put faith in his way and then things will begin to connect and you'll begin to Overflow with his goodness.

The next thing I wrote down about having a life of overflow is I have to remove some things I Have to remove some things Look what it says there again in John 15 verse 2.

It says that the father the gardener He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit So what they will produce even more in other words?

he gives us garden garden analogy of a gardener cutting back a perfectly good plant a Plant that had produced but it wasn't producing because it had grown it kind of grown Hearty and it had had had passed this this fruit bearing a season I don't know how many of her in the gardening, but typically where blooms and Fruit is produced from is the new growth on the plant as you cut back the old growth in the winter Season, then the new growth begins to sprout and out of that new growth fruit begins to to be produced And so you have to remove some of the old stuff in order for the new stuff to flourish and produce And it is no different with my life or your life Look what the scriptures say in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 the writer here says since we are surrounded by a huge Huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, which he talked about in Hebrews 11 He says now let us strip off every weight that slows us down Especially the sin that so easily trips us up and let us run with endurance the race God has set before us here the writer in Hebrews gives an analogy He says life with God is like running a race and he says you need to run the race with endurance But one of the ways to keep running the race is strip off The stuff that slows you down or the thing that trips you up he says you got to remove some things in order to run the race in a great great way and The Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter 4 the writer says it this way in Ephesians 4 verses 22 and 23 He says throw off Your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.

He says instead Let the spirit Renew your thoughts and your attitudes put on your new nature created to be like God truly righteous and holy so the scripture gives a lot of analogies about pruning about getting rid of some things and letting the new thing begin to grow and and and Produce and what the scripture is saying is you and I need to begin to let God's spirit Remove some things from our life the things that clutter up our life and keep us from being Being productive with our life found in Christ Jesus Has anybody ever?

Decluttered their closet.

Come on Throwed out some old stuff or Or gotten some new stuff and throwed out the old stuff.

It's a good feeling because you can find the new stuff but what's amazing is you can get some new stuff and put it in the closet with all the old junk and And nobody can find the new stuff.

So it doesn't it doesn't ever bring satisfaction because you can't find the new stuff because of the old stuff come on and And what happens in many of our lives our lives are so cluttered Sometimes with sinful things things are not from God But sometimes it's it's good things and God's saying take some inventory Occasionally make sure the newness of who I am continues to flow in your heart and in your spirit and I will do a new thing in you and I will do a New thing through you.

I will overflow out of you.

Don't let the old Set in Begin to let me do this new thing Some of us need to prune some habits out of our life Some of us need to prune some ways out of our life Some of us need to prune some things that are continuing to make us negative out of our life In other words some of us stay on Facebook and Twitter so much and watch the news media so much We are negative towards life instead of being fruit producers with life the name of Jesus Because all we can do is focus on the negative and we're not producing anything positive in the world.

Come on somebody It Will suck you in man, it sucks me in Any of us can begin to fall pray to this and the Bible saying Jesus is saying look I am a God who who begins to put fresh wind and fresh fire in your spirit and in your soul Let me purify you Let me wash you.

Let me make you clean Again, come to me all those things that keep keep suppressing you and holding you back from from the good things I want to do in you and do through you Let's get rid of those things and put on the new things that are found in Christ Jesus love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control This is the fruit of the spirit.

So your spirit begins to put Produce fruit in this earth So again, he's not just talking about you know What that I need to put on love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control That is the fruit of God's Spirit but the fruit is There so the world around you can taste and see the goodness of The Lord in other words if we're really producing fruit of overflow is coming out of our life That means the church is growing numerically It's getting larger and larger and larger It's beginning to have more and more influence more and more influence more and more influence in the earth It begins to shift things away from from negative and sinful ways into more righteous and holy ways It's the power of the church But you and I have to be willing to see this overflow come of our life That means that you know what?

We've got to remove some things from our life And I have to continually take inventory of what needs to be removed from my life or my closet If not, I can't draw off the new things I just get cluttered up with all the old stuff and you know what it falls out on me and it falls out on anybody Else it opens up the closet the reality this ruins people's life instead of helps people's life God called us here to make a difference God put you in a seat to flow in you and flow through you and for you and I to remove some things and Set on a new task, which is to grow his kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven He says I want you to overflow with my goodness The next thing I wrote down if I'm really gonna overflow with God's goodness.

I have to remain That means I have to stay put Look what he says John 15 verses 5 and 7.

He says I'm the vine you are the branches Look at your neighbor and say you're a branch Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit For apart from me you can do nothing Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and it withers Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned But if you remain in me and my words remain in you you may ask for anything You won't and it will be Granted the point here is Jesus is saying look.

I want to overflow out of your life But you got to stay connected to me.

You have to remain planted in who I am and who I say you are And my friend this is another word for this would be discipline Stay disciplined stay consistent You want to see God flow in you stay consistent in other words keep your cup keep your life underneath the apple juice Don't be jumping around to the Sprite and to the diet coke.

Come on somebody and Over to the root beer or whatever else it is put if you want apple juice to flow out of your life remain underneath the apple juice Stay put and the reason a lot of people in a lot of churches Ain't producing fruit is because they don't stay fixated on the vision That God has given the local church and they're pouring that out to the world around them I'm here to declare to you that God wants overflow out of the church That means us coming together doing our part and he wants to overflow his goodness into the world But we have to remain connected We have to stay planted in the house of the Lord and then we will flourish is what the scripture says It's your life full of overflow because the Bible says That maybe the reason it's not full of overflow is is because you're not remaining You're not staying consistent You're you're not hanging on to Christ in all circumstances in all Situations and letting the life-giving spirit of God flow into you and flow through you You know what God is still God in spite of what's going on in the world I want to encourage you as a Christ follower to remain a Christ follower in the midst of what's going on in the earth, right?

currently We have something called an election in the United States of America in case you're watching from Guatemala or somewhere and it's the election of the United States of America and many people are are so entrenched into into what a politician is or is it going to do they have forgotten their Christian values and The reality of it is this I want to invite you to do your Christian responsibility in the country of the United States of America and You go to the polls this Tuesday If you haven't already done early voting in this country If you're a citizen of the United States of America, you have a responsibility to go to the polls and vote for the candidate That stands with more biblical values than the other candidate does But remain Connected to the source of your life His name is Jesus in spite of you know Or in the face of whoever you're gonna vote for let him flow in pray over that election pray over that ballot Pray over those things don't continue to let the media and everything else shape who you are You go and you believe in who God is putting in place But some of us are suicide I've been hearing about this election for two years I'll be glad when the votes over come on It's gonna be over Tuesday And guess what the church can keep being the church on Wednesday, come on somebody And we can remain and Be who God has created us to be let's stay connected to the source Let's get rid of the things in our life that don't belong there.

It's a continual process I'm telling you right now things get dumped into my life.

Sometimes I don't even intend for them to get there they just get dumped in because of the proximity of where I get sometimes and I have to remove those things.

I Have to do a download of what just got fed to me And I'm being serious and I have to go you know what I need to get rid of that crap And I need to remain underneath the spout where the glory comes out where the apple juice comes out and I need to let God Put something in me and flow through me on a continual basis, but let me tell you it's a continually it's continually going back to God and Remembering That he has pruned you And he has purified you with the goodness of Who Jesus is and then the last thing about overflow is this I wrote it down this way God calls us to produce look what the scripture says there in John 15 to says he the gardener He prunes the branches why that they do bear fruit so that they will produce even more In other words, he wants us to produce more and more of fruit And so the way to produce fruit is to participate with God's vessel in The world and you want to know what God's vessel is.

I say it almost every single weekend.

I stand up here It's the local church God calls you to produce much fruit in this earth by staying connected to Jesus and being connected to The other branches and begin to produce fruit and participate with the gifts.

He gave you in the local church In other words, you you can't produce if you ain't participating And so that's why we continually invite you into the game And I'm not just talking about go and participate and you know Parts of the ways we participate is is is through through the things we do here on Sunday But but how it's God called us to be the church 24 hours a day seven days a week Because I believe he has called us to do that and we put on a great experience here every single weekend a couple of times a weekend for people to come in to and be fed the good things that come From God's Word into their spirit and into their life but my friends if you walk out of here and you just let it flow in and it goes out your heart and out your Ears when you leave this room and you don't participate with your gift and change in the world You're gonna miss so much about what God wants to do And so I invite you to let's be a people who use our gifts.

Let's love the world Let's grow the kingdom and let's be the people God calls us to be in this earth And so God calls us to live a life of overflow No greater season than to live a life of odor overflow than the season we're coming up on What if?

for the next 60 days We as a church and as the people of God Feeding off the vine of Christ and abiding in him Begin to do our part and produce fruit Declutter our life let him put the new things in and begin to flow out of our life What if the people of God became that that that kind of grapevine?

Let's call it in this community For the next 60 days.

We have an opportunity.

I think what's gonna happen is we're gonna get on the other side of Christmas and we're gonna begin to see you know what the results of us producing fruit together during this season and It's going to be numerically It's going to begin to be more seats field because people want to experience the goodness of God It's going to begin to be more life change Where people are getting the old clutter out and putting the new things in and in 60 days What if we stay consistent for 60 days?

What could it look like as we go into the year 2025 if we truly participate and believe together that there won't be any empty seat in any Service come on and we participate and believe that we got to add more services because there's too many people in their standing room only The reality of it is that's what God's calling us to It's not the church has never been about us for and no more The church has always been about numerical growth spiritual growth Other words getting the old out putting the new in but the reason we put the new in is so we can grow new Numerically and bring the good news of Christ to every tribe every tongue every nation and every people Jesus says That we're here to produce much Fruit we're inviting you in during this season to live a life of overflow.

Let me pray for you God I thank you so much for allowing us to participate with your Word God I thank you so much for what Jesus came to do in the message.

He shared why he was here God, I pray you would purify us You would prune us You would leverage us you would use us and let us stay continually connected to you the source That gives us life and life Abundantly God, we know we face a real live enemy that comes to kill steal and destroy but may we feed May we get a freshness From you and who you are in Jesus what you came to do You came to pour out the Holy Spirit the set-apart spirit on men and women alike So together we could produce much fruit God you're calling your church during this season To step up and begin to do great and mighty things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ For your namesake for your glory God, I pray you'd use us we would surrender we would submit We wouldn't just press for our own way but we would get underneath your authority and your leadership and we would do things your way and God we would begin to participate together and Watch the miracle of Christ Be birthed through us and do great and mighty things My friend if you're here today, and you've never experienced the love of God and you're in a constant struggle With who you are and what your purpose in this earth is I invite you today to surrender and Trust the one who came to give you life and his name is Jesus The Bible says for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son Whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life.

I Need you to know today that Jesus came so you could have eternal life and produce eternal fruit But my friend you have to come underneath what God did for you.

He's the way the truth in the life And stop doing life your own way, but begin to come underneath The way he's provided and trust him to speak into you and grow and maybe today is the day you want to do that say God today us Turn away from my sin I repent of my sin and I turn towards the love of the cross of Christ as he shed his blood on that cross for humanity, I receive it as a payment for my sin I trust the resurrection and I trust that Jesus you came to breathe new life into me a Fresh wind a fresh spirit so that I could overflow with your goodness and be productive in this world If you said that prayer, I want to say welcome to the family and may God continue to flow in us together and flow Through us.

It's in Jesus name we pray Amen.